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Are you interested in AI? Do you enjoy science fiction? Do you have an opinion about how AI will impact the human species? Are you enthusiastic about it or worried about it? Or do you think you know the answer?
Dave Jilk (my first business partner and one of my closest friends) recently published EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga.
When Dave described the idea for the book he was working on during a long hike four years ago up and around Green Mountain in Boulder, I was fascinated with what he had decided to take on. AI wasn’t front of mind in the same way as today, but Dave had been doing research in that arena for around a decade. When we talked about AI, our discussions usually revolved around aspects of AGI. I was mainly in listening and questioning mode since Dave’s knowledge and thoughts quickly went beyond my understanding of – well – all of it.
Dave could have taken his deep understanding of AI, technology in general, philosophy, and psychology in multiple directions with an extensive writing project. But yet another book explaining AI or philosophizing (or rhapsodizing) about it would be … boring. And while I’m enjoying reading lots of AI-inspired sci-fi, AI is now a routine trope that is being woven into more complex sci-fi.
So, Dave decided to write a poem—a very long poem—an epic poem about AITHER, the first fully human-level artificial general intelligence. It is a memoir by AITHER, entirely from AITHER’s point of view. As the first human-level AGI, AITHER muses extensively about identity and purpose, future selves, the importance of beauty, the nature and ethics of technological progress, cultural influence and hegemony, humanity’s tragic flaws, and existential risk.
There is also a soundtrack because every book needs a soundtrack. If you like album-length soundtracks, Dave subsetted a soundtrack for the wireheading scene.
But EPOCH is not simply an epic poem about the first human-level intelligence AGI. It is filled with allusions to books, poems, songs, academic papers, paintings, and films. In Dave’s words:
“These are not merely passing linguistic echoes; in most cases they connect with the point made or the topic addressed. As a whole they are also an important thematic element of the book, and are called “osculations.”
EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga took Dave four years to create. I read the first half about two years ago and the completed draft about nine months ago. I remember vividly telling Amy, “Reading this book is a lot of work, but it is totally worth it.”
If you want more of the backstory, look at the EPOCH website.
But know that I strongly recommend you buy a copy of EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga right now if you are interested in AI, sci-fi, philosophy, psychology, technological progress, humanity’s tragic flaws, or a fantastic work-product from four years of effort.